Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit against BEST GDR LLC, doing business as Premium Home Service, and its CEO, Yosef Bernath, alleging the company created thousands of online business profiles for non-existent home repair companies. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) joined Raoul in filing a lawsuit against the Westchester, Illinois-based online business.
The Attorney General’s Office is working with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice on this lawsuit.
Raoul’s lawsuit alleges that Premium Home Service’s program uses local phone numbers to lure consumers into thinking they are a local home repair business; the defendants allegedly maintain more than 7,600 phone numbers in more than 250 area codes in the United States. Because Defendants use search engine optimization techniques to improve rankings in search results, consumers may find one of Defendant’s businesses listed at the top in an online search.
When consumers call what they believe is a local business, their calls are routed to a customer service representative, often located overseas.
These representatives attempt to sell consumers memberships or one-time service call charges and often collect debit or credit card information at the time of sale. Defendants then outsourced consumers’ service requests to third-party service providers.
Many consumers complained that these providers were unqualified, provided substandard service or never showed up at all, the lawsuit said. Since at least 2018, more than 100,000 consumers across the country have been tricked into calling and purchasing in-home repair services and memberships.
Raoul is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent further deception, civil penalties against the defendants, and monetary relief for affected consumers.
Supervising Attorney Janice Parker, Assistant Attorneys General Dale Lichtenstein and Amanda Palmer are handling the case for the Raoul Consumer Fraud Bureau.
Source: Illinois Attorney General’s Office
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